Greens blame Labor's disunity for their backlash at the polls

MARK COLVIN: The Labor Party isn't the only one with reason to reflect ruefully on its performance at the election.

The Greens retained their Lower House seat and held their ground in the Senate, but nationally they suffered a swing against them of about 3 per cent.

Some suggest their role in the hung parliament may have angered voters. Others say the departure of the former leader Bob Brown may have had an effect.

But the Greens Leader, Christine Milne, says it's possible the party was tainted by Labor's disunity.

Rachel Carbonell reports.

RACHEL CARBONELL: The Deputy Leader of the Greens, Adam Bandt, was able to hold the seat of Melbourne despite a preference deal against him. And in a victory speech to hundreds of supporters, promised to shine a light on the new conservative government.

ADAM BANDT: The real opposition to Tony Abbott's coming brutal agenda in the House of Representatives is now going to be led by the people of Melbourne. Because - there was a reason Tony Abbott was so desperate to have the Greens out of Parliament. He knew that we wouldn't vote with him to cut single parents or uni funds or send refugees offshore. And we are now going to be giving voice to those millions of people across Australia who think we can have a clean economy and a caring society.

CROWD: Yes!

(Cheers and applause)

RACHEL CARBONELL: But the Greens are now being asked if they put too many of the party's resources into that campaign, because elsewhere in the country the party suffered a substantial swing against it.

Party Leader, Christine Milne, says the result isn't as bad as some critics are making out.

CHRISTINE MILNE: Well if you look at the outcome, I think the Greens' strategy has worked for us. Not only have we returned all our seats, including Adam Bandt, but we've picked up a new Senator in Victoria. We're going back the Parliament with 10 seats in the Senate and Adam Bandt in the House of Reps. And we've got an outside chance in the ACT (Australian Capital Territory).

So that is a pretty good outcome for a party to come back with more seats than they had when they left.

RACHEL CARBONELL: However, she concedes the party does have some reflecting to do.

CHRISTINE MILNE: Well I'll be talking to people around Australia as to why people who voted for the Greens in 2010 didn't vote for the Greens in 2013. And I think that's going to be an interesting conversation. Like everyone else, you go to talk to people after the election and ask that question.

RACHEL CARBONELL: Ms Milne says the Greens may have been tainted by Labor's disunity.

CHRISTINE MILNE: The Greens were blamed in some way for the problems that the Labor Party had and the incumbency argument. There was a big anti-party, fed up with all of them vote at this election. And I think that showed itself in the plethora of minor parties that, or micro-parties, that were elected. And I think all of that instability in the Labor Party, the overthrowing of the prime minister, the revolving door of ministers and so on, undermined the achievements.

RACHEL CARBONELL: Political analyst from Monash University, Zareh Ghazarian, agrees the Greens' affiliation with Labor may have hurt them at the polls.

ZAREH GHAZARIAN: There is an element that the Greens, because they made concessions or actually made deals with the Labor Party to form government in 2010, has impacted on their electoral support. And I think we get a hint of this if we look at the state by state breakdown because it was actually in Tasmania where the Greens suffered their biggest swings. And Tasmania of course is the state where the Greens and Labor have governed together for quite some time.

There is a risk for a minor party such as the Greens to associate themselves closely with the Labor Party. And unfortunately for the Greens, the Labor Party over the last three, four years has been rife with internal division, and surely some of that has rubbed off on the Greens as well.

RACHEL CARBONELL: Dr Ghazarian believes the Greens lost more votes to the Coalition than it did to the minor and micro parties.

ZAREH GHAZARIAN: Perhaps some of these parties were able to attract the Green votes. For example the WikiLeaks Party didn't do very, very well, but the votes that it did take presumably came from the left of centre and from the Greens.

There were other minor parties as well from the right of centre, such as the Motoring Enthusiasts Party and Palmer United Party. So I'd say that some Green votes went to those parties as well, not so much though.

RACHEL CARBONELL: The votes that you see the Greens have lost, you've seen them going mostly to the major parties and some to the minor and micro-parties. But the minor and micro-parties in your mind are not what's to blame.

ZAREH GHAZARIAN: Clearly what's happened is that this was a change of government election, and so voters basically, a lot of Green voters abandoned them in favour of voting for a change of government.